Singlespeed & Fixed Gear"I still feel that variable gears are only for people over forty-five.
Isn't it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles than by the artifice of a derailer? We are getting soft...As for me, give me a fixed gear!"-- Henri Desgrange (31 January 1865 - 16 August 1940)

(This is my second try posting this thread. My wireless internet reception has really been bad this weekend, I think it might have got cut off as I was sending my original post out, since it comes in and out. Please let's not get off topic.)

I was riding up a hill with my friend to his apartment, and I got a flat after hitting the 500th pothole this month. Actually, the tube just leaked for a couple seconds, and then the sealant inside took over. Lower tire pressure, but good to go right? So I take off back down the hill going about 25 and I'm braking the whole time. When I get to the bend at the bottom of the hill, my front tire completely deflates and I'm skidding everywhere like on ice. I throw my foot down and I stop about 50-75 feet later. It was scary as hell!

So, I've learned that a front flat is as serious as Sheldon Brown says it is, to run a back brake unless you're running fixed gear, and that your sole brakes really do suck in an emergency. If I had my track wheels already I think I could have done a quick hockey stop, even without pressure in the front tire. Am I just imagining this? Anyone experienced a front flat on a fixie?

I've been lucky with front flats. I picked up one going down a moderately sloped hill and I'm pretty sure that if I hadn't taken off speed quickly with back pressure I've have picked up a nice faceful of pavement.

On thin rims with narrow tires a front flat can be bad news. This can be made worse if you are at high speed, heading down hill, on dirt or sand, drunk, et al. The tubes are so small that you go from happy as to riding on the rim in a pretty small window.

By the way...Contestants: how many times did the Batmobile pick up a flat?

I've experienced probably as many front flats as rear flats on my fix. I'm an equal-opportunity flatter. Luckily, I've never had it happen while cornering or going down a hill. It always sucks, and is never fun.

Carry spares, a pump, and a lever if you need it. And don't forget your 15mm wrench!

how are y'all getting all these blowouts? This past month has been the March of the flats for me, 4 flats in 2 weeks. All of them were glass punctures. The slowest one lasted halfway down a bridge, the fastest one gave me a good 10-20 seconds of hissing before I was on top of the rim.
I only "blowout" MTB tubes, if I'm riding them.

QP & M-a-M...do you start singin' the Put it on Vibrate part from "Kicked Out The House" whenever you are out in public or at a movie or class when someone reminds everyone to put their cell phone on vibrate? I do it every time I hear it, can't stop myself, but I have yet to run across many people who know what the hell I'm singing about. Such a great group and yet seemingly overlooked by most folks.

I've gotten easily 30 times as many rear flats as front flats. When I flat up front, it's usually pretty spectacular circumstances, too. I had a really nice Tufo tubular clincher up front for a while until a drainage grate that came out of the darkness tried to kill me. I managed to stay on the bike while my front wheel went into and came out of a long opening about the same width as my rim. Shredded the sidewall for 18" on both sides. The other times I've flatted up front have all either come from the front edges of really nasty potholes or from pinching the tube one way or another while mounting *****-ass 19mm tires that I have to run up front to clear my fork crown.

Joking aside, I've had a handfull of flats, both front and back, never really a problem for me, just carefully slowed down (not worried about my rims, they came from the dump) and patched/replaced the tube.